Wenlin procedure for treatment of compound thoracic deformity after cardiac surgery.

Cardiac surgery is usually completed through the median sternotomy. If the sternum is not fixed firmly after the operation, it may lead to secondary thoracic deformities. The most common deformity after operation is pectus carinatum, and the relatively less common deformity is pectus excavatum, but the compound thoracic deformity has not been reported. We met a 3-year-old boy who underwent surgery for congenital ventricular septal defect at the age of 1. He developed a severe compound thoracic deformity after surgery. We used Wenlin procedure to correct his deformity and obtained satisfactory results. This article reports the operation of this patient.